John Edwards on Hillary Clinton and Corporate Democrats

[kpete]

Amid renewed talk of a John Edwards endorsement for Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton come disturbing rumors also that the former progressive candidate for president might actually be thinking about endorsing Clinton. While Mr. Edwards considers his options, it seems worthwhile to consider also what he has said about Clinton and other "corporate Democrats" in the past, and the degree to which a Clinton endorsement from him now would constitute an act of unforgivable hypocrisy.
http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/diarypage.php?did=6113

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Edwards' opinions on Clinton are also clear in comments from the campaign trail quoted by Mother Jones in November:

"Do you really believe that if we replace a crowd of corporate Republicans with a crowd of corporate Democrats that anything meaningful is going to change...? The presidential candidate who has raised the most money from Washington lobbyists is not a Republican. It's a Democrat. The candidate who has raised the most money from the health industry - insurance companies and drug companies - is not a Republican. It is a Democrat.... And the candidate who has raised the most money from the defense industry is not a Republican. It is a Democrat. And all those descriptions fit the same candidate. They're all Senator Clinton."

http://www.motherjones.com/washington_dispatch/2007/11/John-Edwards-Iowa-caucuses.html

[Why Syzygy]

1. I hope he doesn't shame himself. Would be a pity. n't

[LakeSamish706]

2. Yep, that would be very disturbing if he were to endorse at this time... either candidate. n/t

[Araxen]

3. Hillobots are blind to the hypocrisy

of John Edwards endorsing Hillary. They always seem to forget the statements made by Edwards, "She's the status quo", "Not an agent of change", etc...

It's ok I'll forgive them.

[jsamuel]

4. The candidate who has raised the most money from Drug Companies is not Clinton, it is Obama.

Obama now outranks Clinton in some of those measurements Edwards was using.

[JimGinPA]

6. And You Have Some Proof Of That I Suppose?

:eyes:

[jsamuel]

9. Edwards said it at the NV debate and Obama said it was accurate and explained.

[bigtree]

5. He's no fan of Obama on special interests, though

"Mr. Edwards said he and Mr. Obama had “philosophical differences” on opposition to special interests, noting that he had not relied on lobbyists and political action committees for donations. (Mr. Obama is not taking money from those sources in the presidential race, either, but did so in his 2004 run for the Senate.)

“It is unrealistic to think that you can sit at a table with drug companies, insurance companies and oil companies and they are going to negotiate their power away,” he said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/18/us/politics/18campaign.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

[bigtree]

7. in a TV ad airing in South Carolina, Edwards aims squarely at both his rivals

"One gets more money than anyone from drug companies. The other one takes more money than anyone from Washington lobbyists," the narrator says as photos of Clinton and Obama appear on the screen.

"What’s happened to the Democratic Party? Whatever happened to the party of the people? Good question," the narrator continues, as a montage of Edwards on the campaign trail appears. "The only one who’s never taken a dime from PACs or Washington lobbyists, who knows we’ve been ignored too long, who knows that rebuilding the middle class is more important than politics? Our John Edwards. The only one."

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2008/01/edwards_ad_hits.html

[KittyWampus]

8. I no longer care who Edwards endorses.

[philly_bob]

10. I do care. What other leverage do progressive Democrats have? n/m

[jackson_dem]

11. Obama is a corporate Democrat. Edwards doesn't drink kool aid he looks at data

He pointed out Obama raised more from drug companies than anyone in the Vegas debate...He knows what the score is.

[Johnny__Motown]

13. From people working for the companies, not from the companies

It isn't the same thing.


If a guy working on the assembly line for GM donates to a candidate it isn't the same as taking money from an auto maker.

It sure would be nice if we kept Lobbyist money and employee's money separate. They are not the same thing.

[jsamuel]

15. Ding Ding Ding! - That is the thing people are ignoring. Edwards doesn't like Clinton for the

corporate thing, but Obama HAS THE SAME PROBLEM.

[publicatlarge]

12. Maybe Edwards could take credit for...

...converting Hillary on the issues of undue corporate influence. Nothing wrong with having gotten his points across. This is all about moving forward, and hope for change.

[Blue_In_AK]

14. My guess is John Edwards, like a lot of people,

is deeply conflicted about the qualifications and positions of both of these candidates. I hope he doesn't endorse until after the convention so people will get off his back.

Once again I ask -- WHO HAVE THE OTHER FORMER CANDIDATES ENDORSED? Why is everybody singling out Edwards as the target of their derision? When I Google "Biden endorses," "Dodd endorses," "Richardson endorses," etc. all that comes up is Kucinich endorsing Obama in the Iowa caucus only (and medical marijuana), Biden endorses Dodd (sort of), and a bunch of other entries that have nothing to do with Obama and Clinton.

LEAVE JOHN EDWARDS A-L-O-O-O-O-N-E. :cry: